


The Sheepherding Bunny

by rsadelle



Category: Harry Potter RPF
Genre: Abandoned Work - Unfinished and Discontinued, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Farm/Ranch, F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-07-17
Updated: 2007-07-17
Packaged: 2017-10-27 04:25:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,043
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/291605
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rsadelle/pseuds/rsadelle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>So Daniel's a shepherd. He goes out into the hilly countryside and sits under trees and daydreams. Emma is his sister. Sometimes, Daniel is gone for a couple of days, grazing the sheep, and Emma putters around the house, cooking and cleaning and doing chores. The house is old and not in the best of shape, but it's theirs and all they've got is each other. And the house. And the sheep.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Sheepherding Bunny

**Author's Note:**

> I should explain two things: 1. This is actually [](http://schuyler.livejournal.com/profile)[**schuyler**](http://schuyler.livejournal.com/) 's bunny. 2. I wrote at least the beginning of this in text messages to [](http://schuyler.livejournal.com/profile)[**schuyler**](http://schuyler.livejournal.com/) and (I think) [](http://amatia.livejournal.com/profile)[**amatia**](http://amatia.livejournal.com/).

**Sky's Original Bunny**

So Daniel's a shepherd. He goes out into the hilly countryside and sits under trees and daydreams. Emma is his sister. Sometimes, Daniel is gone for a couple of days, grazing the sheep, and Emma putters around the house, cooking and cleaning and doing chores. The house is old and not in the best of shape, but it's theirs and all they've got is each other. And the house. And the sheep.

Tom is the son of the mayor. He lounges for a living, but he's sweet, and he hangs out with the common people. Lately he's been sniffing around Emma (who secretly loves the attention).

Rupert grew up with Daniel and Emma. His family are dairy farmers nearby. He met Tom at the pub one time Daniel was away and Emma and Daniel mistrusted him for a bit for spending his time with the mayor's son, so he brought Tom by to meet them. That's when Tom met Emma.

Matthew is the baker in town and Emma's best friend. Everyone expects them to get married, an idea the two of them find absolutely laughable. She comes by the shop and stays to get the gossip and chat, and then he sends her off with a kiss and something sweet for her brother.

 **The Fic**

The town, halfway up the mountain, was just big enough to have two competing inns across the square and more people than any one person could know.

On the outskirts of the town, on the higher end, was a small cottage. The cottage had a fenced in yard and a shed nearly as big as the cottage itself. The property was inhabited by two people and a small flock of sheep.

The two people were called Dan and Emma. They were siblings who had inherited the property with its small flock when their parents had died not very many years ago.

They awoke early every morning. Emma served up porridge and bread and packed a lunch of cheese and more bread for Dan while he ate his porridge. Emma then ate her own breakfast while Dan got the sheep out of the yard and headed up the mountain.

Most days, after cleaning the house and starting dinner, Emma walked into the center of the town to visit the bakery. She preferred to buy their bread rather than bake it herself. It saved her a chore that would unnecessarily heat up the house in the summer and use too much firewood in the winter. It was a sensible reason.

Matthew was the real reason she bought their bread. Matthew's father was the town's baker, and Matthew was poised to someday take over the bakery. He was his parents' youngest child, the only one to want to stay in the town instead of going off adventuring or to the city to make his fortune, and so his parents were inclined to let him have his way in nearly everything. When Emma came into town for her bread, Matthew, with few exceptions, was allowed to leave the shop and go for a walk with her.

"They'll be married soon enough," the old women of the town said of Matthew and Emma.

If they happened to hear anyone say that of them, they swept by as if they hadn't heard and waited until they were out of sight to collapse into laughter.

"Imagine!" she said. "Me married to you!"

When he packed up Emma's bread for the day, Matthew slipped an extra sweet roll into her basket. She would, he knew, share it with Dan, but he didn't mind. They were both his friends.

Sometimes, in the summer, Daniel and the sheep would stay on the mountain all night. Emma was careful, as soon as it was warm enough, to pack enough food for two days instead of one into Dan's lunch sack. He only stayed more than one night once. One of the lambs fell, breaking her leg, and Dan waited for her to be a little stronger before he carried her down the mountain. He and Emma set the bone and Emma kept the lamb at home with her until it was well enough to go back up the mountain.

Matthew came to visit on summer evenings. He had an uncanny ability to pick the evenings Dan spent on the mountain.

Rupert, too, visited the small cottage in the evenings. Rupert, like Dan and Emma, lived on the outskirts of the town. His family owned the largest herd of dairy cows in the town, perhaps even in the whole county, although there was a family three towns over who also claimed that distinction.

Rupert came to visit on nights when Dan came back down the mountain as often as he did on nights when Dan and the sheep stayed to sleep under the stars. On evenings when he was there, Dan would bounce ideas he'd garnered from books borrowed from anyone who would lend them off of Rupert. On evenings when Dan didn't make it home, Rupert and Emma would pass the time playing cards and exchanging gossip.

One week in July, Emma found herself growing lonely. Dan stayed on the mountain every other night that week. Emma didn't see Rupert all week, even when she walked over to his family's farm for milk. Matthew, too, was largely absent that week. He came only once and confided to her, with a bright sparkle in his eyes, that he'd been granted permission to call on Bonnie Wright.

Emma wished him well and finished a winter sweater for Dan, a pair of gloves for herself, and a stack of scarves to sell at the market. The week wasn't a total loss.

On Tuesday of the next week, Dan stayed on the mountain and Rupert came to visit. Rupert was not, as he usually was, alone.

"This is Tom Felton," Rupert said, introducing the tall man he'd brought with him. "Tom, this is Emma Watson."

Tom took her outstretched hand and lifted it to his lips. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Miss Watson."

Emma raised her eyebrows at Rupert. "Please, call me Emma," she said to Tom. She gestured at the chairs around the table. "Sit. I'll make tea."


End file.
